Many people regularly use Adobe Photoshop to remove backgrounds from images so that they can easily be used on a variety of different backgrounds without looking poor.
This post focuses on how you can do this by creating a transparent background in Adobe Photoshop CS3.
Photoshop Transparency
To be able to remove a background from an image, you’ll need to create a transparent layer.
There are two primary ways in which you can do this:
1. Create a New File
Choose File > New from the main menu - you should see a box like this appear with the “transparent” option set.
Click on “OK” and your new file will be created.
You’ll then need to create a new layer which will store the image that you want to remove the background from.
2. Create a Transparent Layer
Another approach is to add a transparent layer to a file that you’re already working on - you can do this by selecting Layer > New > Layer from the main menu.
This will add a new transparent layer above the layer that was previously selected - you’ll need to move the transparent layer under the image you wish to remove the background from.
Whilst you can use either approach, you need to ensure that you have at least two layers as shown below where the image layer is above the transparent one.
Remove Image Background
To remove the background, use the Magic Wand or Lasso Tool to select the part of the image that you want to keep and the part that you want to be transparent.
Once you’re happy with the area selected, press the “Delete” button and the selected area (i.e. the background) will be removed (as shown below).
Once you’ve removed the background you can save the file in a number of different formats (e.g. GIF, PNG, TIFF, and PSD).
It’s important to note, however, that saving the image in the JPG format will result in the transparency being lost.
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